PLANTS.

Previous

The Jesuit priest Thomas Falconer, an Englishman well versed in medicine and botany, frequently and openly declared that Paraguay had been enriched by the bounty of nature with so many wholesome plants, roots, gums, woods and fruits, that whoever was skilled in the knowledge of those things would have no occasion for European druggists to cure any disease. Out of many which Paraguay affords either for medicinal or other purposes, I will describe a few in the order in which they enter my mind. I doubt not that botanists have written on this subject more clearly and methodically; whether more faithfully also, I dare not determine with regard to all.

CHINA CHINÆ, or PERUVIAN BARK.

This tree is peculiarly worthy of note on account of its bark, which is called china chinÆ, Peruvian bark, or the remedy for fever. It is of middling height, and not very large, and bears an almost orbicular fruit, somewhat raised in the middle, and by no means fit to be eaten, but which contains two yellowish nuts indented all over like the rind of an almond. It is filled with a balsamic odour of a dusky colour, and a very sweet scent, but extremely bitter. With this balsam the Indians allay pains in the eyes, head and stomach, if they arise from cold. The bark is naturally white, but when torn from the tree gradually assumes a dark yellow on the surface, a little varied with pale spots: but within, it is of a red colour, not like blood, but like cinnamon, being tinged with a yellowish cast. The taste is bitter, but the smell aromatic and pleasant, though somewhat rancid. Some call the Peruvian bark Jesuits' powder, because the Jesuit missionaries in Peru were the first who made known its singular efficacy in expelling fevers. The celebrated physician Woytz tells us that this medicine was first brought to Europe, in the year 1650, by Cardinal de Lugo, a Spanish Jesuit.

ZARZA PARRILLA.

Zarza parrilla is the root of a green, creeping plant, armed at intervals with very small thorns. It has leaves almost a span long, from the beginning of which proceed two tendrils, with which it entwines itself with other plants. The flowers grow in clusters, and give place to berries, which are first green, then red, and when quite ripe, black, and wrinkled like dry cherries, which they resemble in size and form. This plant is called by the Spaniards zarza parrilla, on account of its thorns, for zarza in Spanish means a thorny plant; parrilla, in the same language, signifies a gridiron; as therefore the leaves of this plant bear some sort of resemblance to a gridiron, three pretty large veins running lengthways, crossed by a number of smaller ones, it has received the name parrilla or gridiron; but botanists call it smilax aspera Peruviana, or sarmentum Indicum. The zarza parrilla is very common on the banks of the Uruguay, and the Rio Negro, the waters of which are celebrated for their salubrity; it is also found near the Rio Tercero, in the territories of Sta. FÈ, and other parts of America. The most famous is that which comes from the bay of Honduras. The roots of the zarza parrilla, which possess a medicinal virtue, are scarce thicker than a goose's quill, wrinkled on the surface, and of a dusky colour, but white within; all of them grow from the same joint or knot of the plant. They have no particular taste or smell. They consist of rosin, and gum which is the softer part of them. The various uses of these roots are too well known to physicians to need an explanation from me.

RHUBARB.

Rhubarb is the root of a plant of the dock kind. From out the sheath of the leaves rises a little bunch of flowers divided into many branches, on which hang four blossoms, surrounded with leaves, and bearing a triangular seed. The roots are long, and rather spungy, tolerably heavy, yellowish on the outside, but within of the colour of a nutmeg, variegated like marble, and of a sharp bitter taste. When eaten they create nausea, and have an aromatic flavour. In divers parts of Paraguay, especially in the mountains called La Cordillera, near the city of Asumpcion, as well as at the banks of the rivers ?pane miri, and Tapiragua?, there grows a kind of rhubarb, similar to that of Alexandria in colour, taste, smell, and virtue, but with this difference, that the leaves of the Alexandrine rhubarb are pointed at the bottom, and broader at the end; whereas the leaves of the Paraguayrian are wide at the beginning, and terminate in a point, like the leaves of lilies. I understand that the East Indian rhubarb, as well as that of Persia, Muscovy, and Tartary, is preferred by physicians to that of America.

THE ROOT JALAP.

Paraguay abounds in the root jalap, the plant of which is called by botanists Mirabilis Peruviana. These roots are long, thick, and resinous. Without they are of a dusky brown, but within of a pure white, without any decay. They not only cure bile, and rheum, but expel other noxious humours from the body. The rosin of jalap is prepared from them.

MECHOACHÀN.

MechoachÀn is a large light root, entirely white at the beginning, but of a dusky colour above. Some call it bryonia Indica, but though it resembles the bryonia, its plant is a convolvulus, and bears heart-shaped leaves, and small berries. The mechoachÀn is well calculated for gently purging infants; for the powder to which the root is reduced has no taste, and looks like flour.

SASSAFRÀS.

The tree sassafrÀs, which is very common throughout the whole of America, may be commended for its beauty, as well as its salubrity. The trunk is perfectly straight and plain, to the length of about thirty feet, when the top unfolds into branches, and leaves. Not only the wood of this tree, but also the bark and root smell very strong of fennel, which keeps off decay and rottenness. Like santalum it is of a dusky yellow colour, and has a sharp aromatic taste, and a pleasant smell. Druggists should examine carefully that the wood of the red fir, boiled in fennel, may not be palmed upon them by foreign traders for the real wood. There is also another kind of sassafrÀs, which has leaves like those of a laurel, and bears an odoriferous and blackish fruit. The bark is of a darkish red colour. This other species is said to possess the same virtue as the former, in provoking perspiration, and urine, in healing maladies arising from cold, syphilis, obstructions in the bowels, disorders in the womb, &c. The apeterebÎ, a tree common in the North of Paraguay, is also thought by some to be a species of sassafrÀs.

HOLY WOOD.

The tree called holy wood is very broad, but not very lofty. It has little and almost round leaves, two of which proceed from single stalks, and are indented at the top. It bears yellow flowers, which grow either single or two together, at the extremity or in the middle of the boughs. The wood is exceedingly hard, and will last almost for ever, even under water. The pith is of a lead colour. The rosin which exudes from this tree is bitter, aromatic, and said to possess equal medicinal properties with the wood: it, as well as the gum, is reduced to a powder which the Paraguayrians drink in cold water, as a cure for dysentery. For what disorders, and in what manner this salutary wood is to be used, it is not my province to explain. This tree does not grow in the South of Paraguay, but in the North, where the Abipones and Mocobios dwell; it is also found in some parts of upper Tucuman.

THE GUAYACÀN.

It is a great mistake to suppose that holy wood, and guayacÀn are the same; for though the wood of both possess the same power of healing almost any disease, yet the two trees differ as much in form as in name: for the guayacÀn is loftier than the other, and almost resembles a nut-tree. It abounds in boughs, and bears small hard leaves. The flowers are yellow and produce fruit full of seeds. The blacker the pith of the tree is the more it abounds in rosin. The bark of this tree is hard, resinous, and composed of several little skins, spotted with grey on the outside, but within of a pale red: it has a bitter taste, but not an unpleasant smell, and is thought to be more efficacious in medicine than the wood itself.

THE ZUYÑAND?.

The zuyÑand?, a large, lofty tree, consists of a soft wood, a thick bark turgid with copious moisture, and red flowers which seem to be composed of one large expanded leaf, as soft as silk. The bark, when stripped of the rough outer skin, and properly ground, is of much efficacy in healing wounds inflicted by the teeth or claws of a tiger.

THE ZAMUÛ.

The zamuÛ is ridiculous both in name and form; for the Spaniards call it palo borracho, the drunken tree. It is lofty. It has a trunk surrounded with largish thorns, and bears middle-sized flowers of a beautiful red colour, but is of very singular appearance in other respects. For the highest and lowest parts of the trunk are small, while the middle swells out to a great width, like a barrel: on which account its very soft wood is easily made into tubs, and barrels. The farther this tree grows from rivers the wider it swells, so great is its dislike to water. It bears a round fruit like certain large gourds, with a very strong rind, which fruit, when ripe, bursts open and discovers woolly flakes, like cotton, and softer than silk, but with so short a fibre that it is very difficult to draw them out into a thread. The thorns of this tree when bruised to powder, and boiled, tinge the water with a red colour which is said to cure sore eyes.

THE MANGA?.

The manga? is about the size of a cherry-tree, and bears white flowers, which exhale a very delightful odour. It produces fruit of a golden colour, and equal in size to a large plum, which, when ripe, are agreeable to the taste, but hurtful to the stomach. Both the tree and the fruit overflow with a kind of milky, and resinous juice, called manga?ci, in the Guarany tongue, which streams out plentifully, when you cut the bark, and is caught by the hand, or by a board. The air curdles it, and gives it the appearance of a little skin. In this state, it is rolled up into balls, which are so remarkably elastic, that when thrown lightly upon the ground they leap up very high in the air. This liquor, manga?ci, is said to be very useful in cases of dysentery. It is much to be lamented that so very few take the trouble to collect this rosin, which would be useful in Europe in various ways.

DRAGON'S-BLOOD.

The tree caÀ verÀ, which produces the dragon's-blood, is middle-sized both as to height and bulk. Some botanists call these trees palmÆ pruniferÆ foliis jaccÆ, but in my opinion they have no affinity whatever with palms. When a deep incision is made into their trunks, a kind of juice flows from them, resembling blood in colour and consistence, and which, when boiled on the fire, condenses into a liver-coloured rosin. Physicians complain that foreign traders sell them goat's-blood, bolo, or red Brazil wood, mixed with gum arabic, for dragon's-blood.

THE CUPA?.

The Paraguayrian trees, though they offer their fruits spontaneously to the natives, do not yield the oil, with which they are impregnated, without being cut. Amongst these is the cupa?, a large, tall tree, remarkable for its leaves, which are half a foot long, with red nerves and veins. Besides the wood, which is of a dark red colour, hard, and fit for carpenter's work, it affords a fruit which is dusky on the surface, but has a kernel resembling a walnut in size and form, and which is reckoned eatable by the Indians, and a dainty by the apes. But this tree owes its celebrity and value to the excellent oil with which it teems. To extract this most useful juice both arms, and arts are requisite. The trunk of the tree, which should neither be very old, nor too young, is cut to the pith with a knife. Soon after the incision is made, you will hear a slight crackling, caused by the oil flowing from the top and from the boughs: for the warm air, insinuating itself more freely into the pores of the wounded tree, seems to rarefy and liquidate the oil, which is naturally resinous and thick. To effect this sooner and with more certainty apply dry burning boughs to the opposite side of the tree into which the incision has been made; by their heat, the oil is more dispersed amongst the fibres of the tree, and more liquefied, which causes it to flow freely into the vessel placed beneath the trunk. Within a few hours you will find a jug full of oil. If you wish to fill many jugs cut many of these trees, which are most abundant in the northern woods of Paraguay; there are none, or very few, elsewhere. This operation must be performed in spring, in the month of September, when the moon is at full; if you undertake it in the absence of the moon, in winter, or summer, you will lose your labour. This oil, in colour, could not be distinguished from water; it has a bitter taste, exhales an odour neither sweet nor the contrary, and is useful both to painters and physicians. I will now make you acquainted with its virtues, which I learnt from others, but never tried myself. When warmed and applied to a wound, it is said to stop the flowing of the blood, and to heal the wounded person very speedily. It will cure the bites of serpents, and remove scars. Placed by way of plaster on the breast, it eases languor in the stomach; when applied to the belly, it assuages colic, and pains arising from cold. Two or three drops, swallowed with a boiled egg, will remove dysentery, and other hurtful fluxions, restore the tone to the bowels, and impart strength. Sometimes it is used as an injection with sugar from plaintain water, or oil of roses. From the oil of the cupa? the Brazilians make the balsam cupa?ba, of such high repute in Europe, especially the inhabitants of the province of Maranham, which abounds in those trees. But other rosins, chiefly that from the tree ybir^apayÈ, of which we shall speak hereafter, are mixed with this balsam, as the singular fragrance of the smell discovers. American as well as European painters derive much benefit from the oil of the cupa?, for when mixed with garlick, it brightens pictures better than any varnish, and will never be obscured by time, if mixed with the colours instead of linseed oil. In wooden images, particularly, nothing is better for painting the face, hands, and every thing of flesh, of a natural colour. I can scarce persuade myself that the oil of the cupa? is brought quite pure from America to our shops; and that merchants do not adulterate it to increase the weight. There are three trees in Paraguay, all materially different, but much alike in name; I mean the cupa?, the curupa?, and the curupica?. The curupa? affords bark like that of the Çevil, which the Indians use to dress ox-hides with. To give them a red colour they mix the bark of the curupa? with that of another tree, (the caatigua, which the Abipones call achitÈ). The curupica?, a tree not larger nor harder than the elder, has a spungy kind of wood, unfit for any purpose, that I know of, which at the slightest touch, sheds a milky juice commonly thought to be poisonous.

PIÑON DEL PARAGUAY,
or THE CATHARTIC NUT.

This is a shrub resembling the fig tree of our country, in its leaves, its form, and the softness of its wood. The trunk and leaves, when pressed with the hand distil a milky juice abounding in serum. It bears fruit like dark walnuts, beneath the hard black rind of which lie three white kernels, covered with a white membrane and divided into as many separate compartments; in sweetness, and in shape they resemble almonds. These kernels, piÑones del Paraguay, or piny nuts of Paraguay, are called by physicians, cathartic nuts, ricini Americani, or purging beans; for two or three kernels, which many say ought to be first stripped of their white skin, then bruised in wine, and roasted a little on the fire, to mitigate their purging qualities, when eaten, will cause vomiting, purge the bowels, and expel noxious humours. Whether these nuts are sold in the druggists' shops in Europe, and whether physicians prescribe the use of them, I do not know. This is certain, that they must be taken cautiously, and with regard to the strength of the sick person. A branch of this tree, when cut and committed to the earth, soon takes root, and grows up very quickly.

THE VAYNILLA.

The vaynilla, a sweet name to those who love chocolate, is a creeping plant which grows in moist places, and entwines itself with certain palm trees, which serve it for a prop. It bears large leaves about a hand long, and small white flowers. Like pulse, for fruit it bears little hulls, or sheaths, a quarter of an ell long, triangular, and when ripe dark on the surface, and of a bright colour; they have a most delicious odour, and are full of very small seeds, like figs. Of these seeds the Indian women make rosaries to adorn their necks with: the savages formerly knew no other use of the vaynilla, which however birds and apes eagerly devour. The little bag or sheath, in which the fruit is inclosed, occasioned the Spaniards to give it the name of vaynilla. The description of this plant, which became extremely profitable to the Americans after the discovery of the use of chocolate, I owe to Father Joseph Sanchez, who had travelled over the land of the Chiquitos, where that fruit grows, as well as in Peru and elsewhere. For this plant grows in no other part of Paraguay that I am acquainted with, which must be attributed to the inhabitants, not to the climate, as it doubtless would grow in the northern parts of Paraguay, were it cultivated there.

THE CACAÒ.

With the vaynilla we must speak of the cacaÒ, which is produced by a tree resembling an orange tree in its leaves, but larger, and having a kind of crown on the top. It bears a fruit like large melons, containing oily kernels, as big as almonds, and separated from one another by a white and very sweet skin, as by a kind of fence. The Peruvian Indians, throwing away the kernels which they did not then know how to use in preparing chocolate, were accustomed to chew and suck the little skin only, which is sweeter than honey. These trees in their native woods grow to a great size, and cover the melons which they bear so entirely with their immense leaves, that you cannot see them without standing close by. They never grow so large when planted in any other soil. In Peru, amongst the Mojos Indians, in Mexico, and other countries of America, the woods abound in this most profitable fruit: both the tree and the kernel, however, vary in different countries.

THE TAMARIND.

Tamarinds, which are very well known in European druggists' shops, are a species of plum, with a dark rind, rather acid, of an agreeable taste, and full of a number of beautiful kernels. Taken inwardly, after being steeped for some time in cold water, they conduce much to allay the most burning thirst, and gently to purge the bowels. They grow upon trees which resemble palms, and have boughs and leaves long enough to cover a number of men, and with their dark shade protect them from the heat of the sun. Tamarinds, which botanists call dactyli acidi, grow in the territories of the Chiquitos, and elsewhere, but are unknown to the other parts of Paraguay.

THE ROSIN ?ÇICA.

This Paraguayrian rosin is found at the roots of trees under ground, where it flows very copiously from them in the heat of the sun. The Guaranies use it not only for medicinal purposes, but also to tar ships with, when pitch is not to be had.

THE TREE ABATI TIMBAB?.

The huge tree abati timbab?, in the heat of the sun, sheds a quantity of gum of a golden colour, and clear as the purest crystal, of which the lower orders of Spaniards and the wood Indians make crosses, ear-rings, and beads to hang round the neck, by the following method: they apply hollow moulds, made in the same form, of wood or reeds, to the trunk of the tree, and the gum flowing down into them is hardened by the air, and quickly assumes the shape of crosses, ear-rings, or beads, with admirable exactness; you would swear they were made of crystal. Although as fragile as glass, they can be melted by no moisture. Were European artisans in possession of this gum, they would make knots, buckles, and little images beautifully with it. Might it not possibly contain medicinal properties? No one has hitherto made trial of its virtues.

THE CEDAR.

The more northerly woods of Tucuman and Paraguay boast of innumerable lofty cedars, which, having exceedingly tall, straight, and large trunks, afford excellent materials for ships, and all sorts of building, as they never feel decay, and last for ever, even under water. No tree which Paraguay produces makes longer or wider beams, which, as they are laboriously hewn, not by a water-machine, but by human hands with a saw, and conveyed in waggons from Tucuman full three hundred leagues, sell very high in the city of Buenos-Ayres, where no woods are to be seen, and whither they are brought from the distant forests of Asumpcion, after a two months' navigation on the river. In Tucuman, indeed, a German lay-brother of our order constructed a machine, by which the saw was moved to the cedars by water underneath the wheel, with a great saving of time and labour; but it was soon after removed and destroyed by the natives, who hate all innovation. Sometimes out of one cedar a very large boat is made, to pull which thirty rowers are hardly sufficient. I do not deny that the tree timbo? is made into shorter and slenderer planks and boats in Paraguay; but cedars hold the first place, as they excel in the width, height, and straightness of their trunk, in the docility of the materials, and their durability under water. There are two kinds of cedars in Paraguay; the wood of the one is beautifully red, that of the other rather palish; both, however, have a very sweet smell, and in the heat of the sun shed great quantities of gum, which is sometimes white, sometimes red, but always transparent. We used it in the same manner as gum Arabic, to glue things together, and also for polishing; might it not be fit for various medicinal purposes? Water boiled with bits of cedar wood and drunk, is a remedy for extravasation in those that have been bruised by a violent blow, by a sudden fall from a horse or a tree; though in such cases, to accelerate the cure, an infusion of quinoa, a kind of pulse with a very small grain, should also be drunk. Others make plasters of the quinoa, after it has been pounded in a mortar, and boiled in water, and when applied to the wounded or bruised part, they dissipate noxious humours so soon as to exceed the expectation both of the physician and the patient. This pulse is also a very wholesome food.

THE AMERICAN PINE, CURI?.

The curi? resembles the European pine in its leaves and in its height, but exceeds it in the hardness of its wood, which is pale, with red veins. The knots and swellings particularly which grow on the Paraguayrian pine are almost as hard as a stone. Of these large knots the Guaranies turn rosaries and images of the saints very neatly. When placed by the fire, the red rosin lurking in the veins of the wood is melted, so that they seem as if varnished with a beautiful red colour, and shine surprizingly.

THE ALFAROBA.

We are now come to a tree on many accounts worthy of particular note; the fruit of which is called by the Spaniards alfaroba. The American alfaroba differs in size, form, and colour from that which is commonly put to sale in Germany, and is called by the Spaniards alfaroba de la Berberia; for from Barbary it was brought by the Moors to Spain and Portugal, where, at this day, it grows in such abundance in the woods, without culture, that in those countries, during the winter season, it is given to oxen and mules for their daily fodder. The sheath of the Spanish alfaroba is rather wide, full of seeds, or large pebbles, and of a dusky colour, although its pulp is sweet and whitish. The sheaths or hulls of the Paraguayrian alfaroba, which are almost a span long, and the breadth of a man's thumb, are covered with a soft yellow skin; moreover the seed is smaller and softer, and they have a pleasanter taste. Of the many kinds of alfaroba which Paraguay produces, the most remarkable are those two which are distinguished by the names of the white and the black. It is chewed white and dry, as it falls from the tree, and when pounded in a mortar, is either eaten, or drunk mixed with water, and fermented, by the Abipones and other savages. It is the employment of the women to gather it in the woods, carry it home on a horse, pound it in a mortar, and pour it, mixed with cold water, on a hide, which serves both for tub and drinking vessel, where, without addition of any thing else, in about twelve hours, it effervesces so much with its own natural heat, as to become at last, a sharp, sweet, and wholesome beverage. Immoderate use of it disorders both the head and feet, and still more the tongue; yet, when taken in moderation, it is a means of strengthening the constitution, and inducing uncommon longevity. Moreover horses, mules, and oxen are never fatter, or more robust than after feeding on the alfaroba, woods of which abound particularly in Chaco, and the territories of St. Iago, though not even the shadow of such a tree is to be seen in any other part of the immense tracts of Paraguay. The Guaranies, who, being distributed into thirty-two colonies, inhabit a vast extent of country, are destitute of this most wholesome fruit; neither did we ever think fit to plant the alfaroba, which grows so quickly, lest the Abipones, like the other Indians, should turn it to a bad use, and that it should cause drinking-parties and intoxication. Moreover the seeds of the alfaroba, if carelessly scattered in any soil, will certainly, and quickly grow up into trees. The white alfaroba affords not only meat, drink, and medicine, but also excellent materials for building waggons, houses and ships: for its violet-coloured wood is docile, and extremely firm, even under water. The leaves of this tree are small; and from its little pale flowers grow seeds, inclosed in a pod. They ripen in the month of November, and last in the woods till March, or are gradually collected and preserved at home by provident persons.

The other species of alfaroba, which the Spaniards call the black, resembles the former in all respects, except that it is smaller and sweeter. Its dusky bark is covered with red spots. The pods, though agreeable to the palate from being extremely sweet, create a roughness in the tongue, if eaten raw too freely, and a difficulty in speaking. I write this on my own experience; for once in a long journey, happening to pluck some of that fruit as I rode along, I was suddenly deprived of the power of speech. Some hours' silence was both the disease and the remedy; the Spaniards who accompanied me being greatly amused at my taciturnity. This kind of alfaroba is more commonly used for food than for drink. Its hulls, when pounded in a mortar, are reduced to a flour, which, after being strained through a sieve, is thrown into a round wooden box, pressed with both hands, and, as it is naturally resinous, forms into bread of itself, and becomes as hard as a stone; for as it abounds in thick rosin, its own dust glues it together. These loaves, which are called patay, and are chiefly made in the colonies of St. Iago, and sent to other cities, are taken, not only as food, but as medicine, especially by Europeans labouring under stone or strangury. No one ever doubted that both the black and the white alfaroba, as they have a diuretic property, are of much use, whether taken in a solid or liquid state, to persons in a consumption, or labouring under diseases of the bladder. Some say that spirits of much efficacy in diseases of the kidneys, and in hectic fevers, might, by chemic art, be extracted from both the alfarobas. We must not pass by a third species of alfaroba, which appears little different from the acacia. It has very hard, dark, red wood, is clothed with the same sort of leaves as the other alfarobas, and bears small yellow flowers, growing in clusters, and exhaling an aromatic smell. The rind of the pods is thick and black. The seeds, inclosed in the pods, are like pulse, but harder. The pods, with their pulp, are resinous, of a sharp, bitter taste, and fit neither to be eaten nor drunk. The fruit is used by the people of Cordoba, and St. Iago, to dye wood, and cotton of a black colour, with the addition of alum, and copperas. This tree exudes rosin like gum Arabic. To it you may add a fourth species of alfaroba, a small tree, the pods of which are of a dark red colour, and taste neither sweet nor bitter. Of this the natives make a potion which is remarkably sudorific, and which, according to Thomas Falconer, will cure many persons who, in Europe, could not be restored to health without the aid of salivation.

VARIOUS KINDS OF PALMS.

Palms alone would afford subject for a bulky volume, if the names, forms, properties, and uses of all the different species were to be described. Palms supply the Americans with meat, drink, medicine, arms, lodging, and clothing. Out of the numbers that I have seen in Paraguay, I will describe a few.

THE CARANDA?.

The tall palm, caranda?, expands its leaves like an open fan, and bears sweet dates, which are not disliked by Europeans even. The bark of the trunk, which is very hard, when cut with an axe, and deprived of the pith, which consists of sharp thorns, is used to roof the houses in some cities, and even to build cottages with. If the palms be cut when the moon is in the wane, their bark will bear age. This also is certain, that the caranda? palms create the richest and most wholesome pasture for cattle; for the rain-water, flowing to the ground from their leaves, contracts a kind of saltness, which generates saliva, and is the best and most agreeable seasoning of the grass for beasts.

THE PINDÒ.

The pindÒ is a very lofty and common palm, with a rough, white bark. By way of wood it has a pulp as porous as a fungus, very light, and composed of threads extremely liable to catch fire. It produces dates which, after being pounded in a mortar, are either drunk with water, or eaten. The dates, falling from the trees, fill the woods, and, by their hardness, severely hurt the naked feet of the Indians. But though these palms are, in some respects, very annoying to travellers, yet in others they are equally convenient to them: for the Guaranies, when they pass the nights in the woods, are furnished by them, on an impending storm, with a protection against the rain. Some hew down any palms of this sort that they can find, and with the soft spungy materials afforded by their trunks, quickly build a little hut, and cover it well with boughs and leaves of palms, bent partly one way, partly another: should the rain fall with the utmost violence, not a drop will penetrate this hasty fabric. Of the leaves of the pindÒ palms, cords, panniers, and baskets are sometimes woven, as of osiers in other places. These palms, not only by their great height, but also by the length of their boughs, which they gracefully extend, afford a pleasing spectacle to the eye, and a great ornament to gardens.

THE YATA?.

The yata?, a smaller palm, besides dates, yields a very tender germ, leafy at the top, as soft as butter, and of a yellowish white, which is eaten raw, as it is plucked from the tree, and is very pleasant to the taste. Crowds of parrots daily fly to feed upon the nuts of this palm.

THE YATA? GUAZÙ.

The yata? guazÙ, which has very large bright green leaves, and a rugged trunk, and is at least five ells high, produces oval shaped nuts, which the Spaniards call coccos. The pulp is very small in quantity, but, if boiled, eatable. In each nut there are three large kernels, as agreeable to the taste as almonds, but more oily.

THE MBOCAYA?.

The mbocaya?, a tree very abundant on hills, has its trunk and leaves armed with long and strong thorns. It bears bunches of smooth dates, as sweet as almonds, which are eaten either raw or roasted. Oil, almost like that of olives, may be expressed from these nuts. This palm puts out threads stronger than hemp, of which the savage nations make cords for bows, and lines for fishing with. In the territory of Cordoba you see palms, the leaves of which make such strong and commodious besoms, that they are brought to the more distant cities. The Spaniards of St. Iago, who go to the woods to seek wax and honey, cut certain palms to the pith. At the end of some weeks they return to the place, and in those palms they had wounded find very large fat worms, which they fry, and eat with much satisfaction.

FRUIT-BEARING TREES.

Many fruits which European trees produce are unknown to Paraguay: in all my travels through that country I never, or very rarely, saw any apples, pears, plums, cherries, filberts, chesnuts, &c. These trees seem not to suit the climate and soil of Paraguay; for they are either entirely barren, or produce such ridiculous fruit as rather deserve the appellation of abortions of nature, than delicacies of the palate. The want of the fruits above-mentioned is amply compensated by an incredible abundance of very large peaches, quinces, pomegranates, citrons, both sweet and sour, and oranges which Europe might envy. In the neighbouring kingdoms of Chili, where, on account of the vicinity of the mountains, the air is much sharper, almost all European fruits, and many other native ones, succeed amazingly, and are dried and carried into other countries with great profit. But though Paraguay is destitute of various European fruits, she boasts of many native ones, unknown in Europe even by name. I shall cursorily describe trees and shrubs as they enter my head, without regard to order.

THE MISTOL.

The mistol, a very large tree, affords hard and heavy wood, of a red colour, fit for making pestles of mortars and spears; it also produces a red fruit, about the size of a chesnut, resembling in appearance the tree which the Spaniards call azofaifa, and druggists jujubes, and which was formerly brought from Africa to Spain and Italy. The skin is tender, the kernel rather large and hard, and the pulp fit for food; a sweet drink, and even a kind of bread, being made of it, which is much liked by the Indians, but to my taste extremely insipid. The jujub is used by European physicians for allaying pains in the breast, cough, hoarseness and pleurisy: whether the Paraguayrian mistol possess the same virtues or no, I cannot tell.

THE CHAÑAR.

The tree chaÑar has a yellowish and very hard wood: the fruit supplies both meat and drink, and is dried and preserved by some.

THE YACANÈ.

The fruit of the yacanÈ tree is of a yellow colour, about as large as a middle-sized citron, and in taste like a rotten pear.

THE QUAB?RA GUAZÙ, AND
THE QUABIYÙ.

The quab?ra guazÙ, which somewhat resembles a plum, and the quabiyÙ, which is more like a cherry, are used both as meat and drink. The quab?ra is very abundant, and much liked by the Indians; but was always nauseous to my taste, for it smells like a bug. Both the trees which produce these fruits afford very good wood for turning.

THE QUAB?RA MIR^I.

The quab?ra mir^i, that is, the smaller quab?ra, differs totally from the former, and, in my opinion, exceeds all the other Paraguayrian fruits, both in sweetness, and salubrity. It is a little apple, resembling a medlar in size, and form, and covered with a hardish skin, which is green at first, and when ripe becomes a dark red. The pulp, which is full of tender seeds, pleases the palate with an agreeable taste, between sweet and sourish, and exhales a fragrant, balsamic odour, with which the bark and leaves are likewise scented. It is a remarkable circumstance that this fruit, though naturally hot, is never prejudicial, however freely it be eaten. The quab?ra mir^i grows on shrubs like the junipers of Austria; they are supported by a slender stalk, but have a number of knotty, thick roots, spreading far and wide in the earth. They grow no where but in sandy soils, destitute of good grass. The quab?ra mir^i is to be seen in every part of the plains of Taruma, of the lands near the little city Curuquati, and of the territories of St. Paulo, bordering on Brazil. But in those tracts of land where this fruit abounds, you find the pastures particularly poor, either from the grass being choked by the sand, or because these shrubs suck up the best juices of the earth. Certainly in the rest of Paraguay, where richer turf is found, I never beheld any thing the least like a quab?ra mir^i. I should not be silent on the other use of this plant; in its little branches the ants make a wax whiter than milk, and fragrant as the most delightful balsam; it consists of very small, white grains, scattered up and down the shrub, which are laboriously collected by women, melted at the fire, and made into candles, for the use of the churches, where, when lighted, they exhale a very sweet odour. It is much to be lamented that this wax, though excellent in other respects, wants hardness; for the candles made of it melt quickly, and are consumed in a short time. To render them more durable, I have often mixed common bees' wax with the wax of ants.

LA GRANADILLA, OR THE PASSION FLOWER.

The first claim to our notice after these belongs to a most wholesome fruit, which the Spaniards call la granadilla. It grows in great abundance in the plain, at all seasons of the year, on a shrub which clings, like ivy, to hedges and bushes. There are many species of it, differing only in form and colour. They all bear a middle-sized apple, of a golden colour spotted with red, in taste between sweet and acid, with an agreeable odour, and full of round, black seeds. Whether eaten raw, or boiled with sugar, like citrons, and drunk mixed with cold water, it is extremely salubrious. Its sweet juice conduces much to strengthen the bowels, and without danger to cool the limbs, after they have been heated by the sun. If you attentively examine the beautiful flower of this plant, you will find the scourge, the crown, the nails, the cross, the pillar, the dice, the gall, and all the other instruments belonging to the passion of our Lord, plainly figured there.

On this account it universally goes by the name of the passion flower, and was thought worthy to be brought from America to Rome, in the time of Paul V.

THE GUEMBÈ.

The fruit guembÈ is the more remarkable for its being so little known, even by many who have grown old in Paraguay; for the northern woods only of that country are its native soil. It is about a span long, almost cylindrical in shape, being thicker than a man's fist in the middle, but smaller at both extremities, and resembles a pigeon stripped of its feathers, sometimes weighing as much as two pounds. It is entirely covered with a soft yellowish skin, marked with little knobs, and a dark spot in the middle. Its liquid pulp has a very sweet taste, but is full of tender thorns, perceivable by the palate only, not by the eye, on which account it must not be slowly chewed, but quickly swallowed: for if any one were leisurely to bruise the pulp with his teeth, his tongue would be made to smart for a long time by the latent thorns, and would be rendered less ready in speaking. The stalk, which occupies the middle, has something of wood in it, and must be thrown away. You cannot imagine how agreeable and wholesome this fruit is, and how it refreshes a man fatigued with long walking and bathed in perspiration. This ponderous fruit grows on a flexible shrub resembling a rope, which entwines itself round high trees. How great must be the strength of the guembepi, as the Guaranies call it, you may infer from this, that the stoutest Indians, when they cut a high tree for the sake of getting honey, sit for a long time with safety upon this shrub, which is entwined about the boughs and trunk. From the above-mentioned guembepi the Spaniards and Portugueze sometimes weave cables stronger than hempen ones.

THE TATAY?, A MULBERRY TREE.

The tatay?, a tall, large tree, bears mulberries, resembling those of our country in taste, and form, but larger, and of a yellow colour. The saffron-coloured wood of this tree is very hard, but docile, and of it the Indians make beautiful boxes, pipes, trumpets, and other things, as Europeans do of box. Pieces of the same wood, boiled with alum, are used for dying wool, and cotton, of a yellow colour.

MAMMONES.

Mammones, fruit about the size of a quince, sometimes larger, and when ripe of a greenish yellow, grow upon the trunk of the tree, and hanging by short stems, have the appearance of teats, whence they are named. Their pulp resembles that of melons, in its taste and yellow colour, and is sometimes eaten raw, or boiled with meat. The tree is of middling height and thickness, and resembles a walnut, in its dusky bark, and a fig-tree, in its large, angular leaves. Its weak wood swells with a milky, insipid liquor, which is an additional reason for the name of mammones being given it. This tree bears flowers, and fruit, at all seasons of the year, but is so much exhausted by this exceeding fertility that it scarce ever lasts above four years. When fresh planted it bears fruit the first year. There are two species of this tree, whereof the one is called the male, the other the female. In some respects they differ, but it is not true that one would be barren without the other. Mammones, though abundant in Brazil, and other parts of America, are very rare in Paraguay, and scarce ever seen there except in gardens.

THE ALABAS.

A shrub, or more properly, a low thorny thistle, delighting in a sandy soil, produces the alabas, round apples, about the size of a hen's egg, concealing beneath a thick, pliant bark, defended by sharp, but very slender thorns, a liquid pulp, which is sometimes redder than blood, sometimes whiter than milk; abounds in soft black seeds; delights the palate with its delicious flavour; and greatly refreshes the body, when heated by the sun. Assuredly this fruit, were it found in Europe, would be ranked amongst the delicacies of the desert. It grows very common in some parts of Paraguay, but is rarely seen in others.

THE AGUA?.

The agua?, an immense tree, produces fruit like plums, which on account of the acidity of their juice, are oftener, and more safely eaten, after being boiled in water. There is another tree which resembles this in name, but is totally different in form and other respects.

THE ANGUA?, or YBIR^APAYÈ.

The angua?, a tree of uncommon height, and thickness, affords wood fit for carpenters work, hard, red, and remarkably fragrant. By way of fruit, it bears hard seeds, like almonds, which are also used in medicine. The stones of this fruit are triangular-shaped, of a violet colour, and so bright that the Indian women make necklaces of them. The rosin which distils from the angua? is exceedingly fragrant, and of sovereign virtue. The famous Peruvian and Brazilian balsam is made of this rosin mixed with the oil of the cupa? tree, and others; it is also used in churches instead of frankincense, which it greatly exceeds in sweetness. The bark of the tree, being impregnated with rosin, is used for the same purpose. The tree is named angua?, because mortars are generally made of it by the Guaranies, in whose language it is also called ybir^apayÈ, the conjuror's tree; for the savage jugglers, whenever they expected to be visited, and consulted by their countrymen, used to perfume their huts, by burning this rosin, that they might seem to breathe of something divine.

THE ?BA POROYT?.

The ?ba poroyt? is a small pome, resembling a cherry, with a pleasant, but rather acid flavour. Of the tree balsam is made.

THE TARUMA?.

The fruit of the taruma? somewhat resembles an olive, though extremely dissimilar in taste. From the abundance of these trees, the territory, wherein we placed the town of St. Joachim, was called Taruma by the Spaniards, and Indians; none of whom are very fond of this fruit.

THE GUAYÁBA.

The tree guayÁba produces kinds of pears of an oval shape, and full of grains. The surface of them, when they are ripe, is yellow, the pulp red. They are both pleasant and wholesome when boiled with sugar. Dressed unripe they are very efficacious in strengthening the bowels, and possess an astringent quality. This tree flourishes even in soils that are not very rich.

THE VINÀL.

The vinÀl, a tolerably large tree, is clothed with leaves like those of the olive, but broader. It bears sweet pods, of which a beverage is prepared. The tree is covered with very sharp and strong thorns, a span in length, and so virulent, that whoever is pricked by them finds it a matter both of pain and danger. But the same tree also affords a medicine; for the juice expressed from its leaves, after they have been pounded, is said to cure complaints in the eyes, especially when they are afflicted with noxious humours.

THE YBIR^A YEPIRÔ.

Of the ybir^a yepirÔ a balsam is prepared, but for what purpose intended I do not know.

THE CAA?C?.

The caa?c?, which some say is a species of mastic, yields a transparent, sweet-scented rosin.

THE AGUARIBA?.

Of the shrub aguariba?, which is likewise thought to be a species of mastic, a balsam of much service in cleansing and healing wounds is made. Taken inwardly it greatly conduces to stop flowing of the blood, and allay coughs.

THE MOLLE.

The molle, a tree of no obscure name, furnishes solid wood for building, but liable to be moth-eaten. It is adorned with leaves, like those of a laurel, which, when bruised, serve for dressing goats'-skins, and for medicinal purposes. The trunk distils a quantity of very fragrant gum, which is burnt instead of frankincense. It bears fruit of a black colour, the rind of which, when unripe, is of a pale blue. This fruit is boiled in water, and, being sweeter than the alfaroba, makes a sharp and sweet syrup, which, mixed with water, affords a pleasant, but powerful drink. This liquor imparts a sort of ferocity to the eyes of persons intoxicated with it, which continues two days. Physicians use both the boughs and the rosin of this tree for various medicinal purposes.

THE BACOBA and BANANÀ.

The fruits bacoba and bananÀ, which the Indians delight greatly in, belong to the fig species. They are oval-shaped, and of a red colour. The shrubs which produce them have neither seed, nor boughs, but are adorned with long, wide, and beautifully green leaves, from the midst of which the germen and the fruit emerge. The trunk or stalk of these shrubs is slender and fragile. They die after bearing fruit once, but are compensated for by suckers which grow from their roots. The fruit of the bananÀ is rather long, and square in form, with a saffron-coloured skin, a soft pulp, and not a very rich, but rather cold juice, which, unless quite ripe, is injurious to the stomach. The bacoba is, therefore, more wholesome than the bananÀ; both fruits, however, when properly used, are remedies for various complaints. A liquor expressed from them causes intoxication when taken in excess. Both trees, though they grow in very sterile soils, bear fruit all the year round.

THE ANANÀS, OR PIÑA DEL PARAGUAY.

The anana is called by the native Spaniards piÑa del Paraguay, from a sort of resemblance to the nuts of the pine, and from its being very abundant in the north of Paraguay. I observed that those of Paraguay were larger than those of Europe, but not so sweet. The juice of the former is as pleasant as that of strawberries to the taste; but, unless perfectly ripe, sharp and caustic; on which account this fruit, when cut into stocks, according to its length, must first be macerated in rich wine. The liquor of it, when expressed by the aid of fire, removes languor from the mind, and nausea from the stomach, relieves dysury, and nephritic pains, and restores the natural heat to the aged. Some preserve ananÀs in sugar. Each plant yearly produces one fruit, and becoming exhausted, gradually dies away; whilst, in its place, a little plant, taken from the crown of the ripe fruit, is placed in the ground, and next year bears fruit. This also is the case when it grows wild without cultivation; for the new germ falls from the top of the plant, and takes root.

THE MANDIOC.

The mandioc is the root of the little plant mandiÒ, which is about the height of a middle-sized man. It is supported by a very straight, slender trunk, the thickness of a man's thumb, knotty like a reed, with bark resembling that of a hazle, and pith, spungy, like the elder's, and full of milk. At the top it is crowned with branches and little boughs, with elegant, long, narrow leaves, of a beautiful green colour. The flowers are yellow. The want of fruit is compensated by the roots, which are sometimes three feet long, fragile, thicker than a man's arm, and covered with a dusky skin like the bark of a hazle. Their very white pith is full of a milky, glutinous, and poisonous liquid. As in the cinnamon shrub the bark is alone made use of; so in the mandiÒ, the root is the only serviceable part. The Americans are acquainted with more than twenty species of this tree, differing in form and virtues. The mandiÒ bears seed not unlike that of the piÑon del Paraguay; but it is quite useless in propagating the plant, for which purpose the trunk or stalk of the shrub is cut into stocks, about a span long, three of which are always stuck into heaps of mould, so that they project about the length of a span from the surface of the earth. In a short time they take root, put out leaves, and grow up. Neither do they require to be watered, for this plant detests moisture and shade, and loves dry soils, and sunny situations. It must be planted in the summer, in ground that has been well dried. Six months after it has been laid in the earth, you will find roots fit for eating; but in reality it is a year before they are fully mature, and attain to their ordinary size; at the end of which time, although they be not dug up, they will remain a long while under ground uninjured, but if taken out of the earth, grow rotten in the space of three days. The roots, therefore, should be carefully cleansed without delay, the little skin being first stripped off them; they should then be cut into small pieces, and laid upon the floor to dry for two days. After being pounded in a mortar, they are reduced to flour, and made into bread baked in various shapes, which, though wholesome, is relished by none but persons unacquainted with the taste of wheat. These American loaves are round, flat, and rather hard, like the bark of the cork tree. They look like those cakes made of flour and honey in Germany, but are devoid of all taste. In other places they squeeze a juice from the roots of the mandiÒ, which, when left in a vessel for two hours, deposits a white settlement at the bottom. This, when dried, is made into flour, and that into small cakes, balls, and other things. The same juice is boiled on the fire, and makes a kind of paste, which is not only used as victuals, but likewise for starch to stiffen clothes with, and sometimes for glue to fasten paper together. There is another kind of mandiÒ, the roots of which, after being softened by lying for some days in water, are roasted on the ashes, and eaten without prejudice. It would take up a long time to relate all the different methods by which the mandioc is converted into meat, drink, and medicine, mixed with butter, barley, and sugar. Happy are the Americans who can deceive and appease their stomachs by so many artifices! For my part, though I have often, in travelling, been exceedingly hungry, I could never prevail upon myself to satisfy the cravings of appetite with the mandioc, in whatever way it were dressed. If the Americans like it, that is sufficient: haud equidem invideo, miror magis. I confess, however, that the root of the mandioc properly cleaned, and eaten plain with boiled beef, was by no means disagreeable to me. I never doubted either that these roots, when prepared in other ways, though insipid to Europeans, create good blood and juices; for, to omit other arguments, the American mothers, whenever they find their milk fail, after recruiting themselves with boiled mandioc, find their breasts filled, which a little while ago were quite exhausted. The Portugueze in Brazil perform arduous journeys of many months, on foot, through immense wilds, furnished generally with no other provision than the flour of the mandioc. The Portugueze sailors also, when they are detained many months in the Brazilian ports, and when they sail back to their native land, feed principally upon the mandioc, and most part of the natives do the same; for as the continual rain prevents the cultivation of wheat, the higher ranks only eat wheaten bread, the flour being conveyed at a great expense from Lisbon. The North Americans also greatly esteem, and carefully cultivate the mandioc. The Brazilian and Paraguayrian Indians account this plant one of the greatest blessings of Providence, as being frequently the only support of life; for although locusts, ants, or a long drought, should entirely destroy maize, pot-herbs, pulse, melons, and fruits; the mandioc alone, surviving under ground, would supply the place of all these things; for when the boughs, and leaves of this tree are, by some means, destroyed, the roots flourish, increase, and remain uninjured. Drought, which destroys other plants, is favourable and salutary to this. But now the resemblance of the name admonishes me to pass from the esculent mandiÒ, to the woolly mandiyÙ.

THE MANDIYÙ, COTTON.

As the mandiÒ is very serviceable in feeding the Americans, the mandiyÙ does much towards clothing them. It is produced by shrubs scarce larger than a hazel of our country, with wood and bark like the elder, and clothed with plenty of soft, woolly leaves. Between three small leaves, with which the unripe nuts are surrounded, grow flowers larger than roses, composed of five broad yellow petals, streaked with red: yellow stamens grow in the bottom of the flowers. The blossoms at length become fruit of a green colour, oval-shaped, or rather conical, and when full grown larger than a plum. When ripe it turns black, and separates into three parts, thrusting out white cotton, full of black seeds, resembling pistachio nuts in size and shape. Under the black skin of these seeds is concealed a yellowish white pith, of a sweet taste, very oily, and of much use in allaying cough and difficulty of respiration. The oil expressed from them is said to be efficacious in cases of stone and in cutaneous disorders. Cotton itself, when burnt, will stop the flowing of blood. As the cotton gradually ripens and bursts from its prison, it is not gathered all at once, but collected day by day. In the Guarany towns this is the business of the girls, who walk about the field, and pluck the fruit with a gentle hand, that the shrubs may not be injured. The cotton daily collected is spread on hides in the court-yard of the house, and laid out in the sun to dry. If this be properly attended to, it may either be safely kept for years in a leathern bag, or spun into thread as soon as you like. To extract those seeds from the cotton the women make use of a wooden machine, consisting of a couple of cylinders, the thickness of two fingers, into which they insert the cotton, and, twisting it about with their hands, cause the seeds to fall out of themselves; because, as they are thicker than the space between the cylinders, they are squeezed out by them.

Some parts of Paraguay produce yellow cotton, but this is very uncommon; for in every other place throughout the country the cotton is as white as snow, and grows on shrubs which are reared from seed sown in little plots of ground, and yield fruit many years. If any plant withers, or grows old, fresh seed is sown, and another succeeds which bears fruit the first year. Cotton loves a sunny elevated situation, exposed to the winds on every side, and full of stones. However favourable the soil may naturally be to the production of cotton, it always requires exquisite culture. It must be ploughed, and weeded over and over again, to clear it of thistles, tares, and grass. The furrows and ditches, into each of which three or four fresh cotton seeds are placed, must be dug in a right line, and at such a distance from one another that the oxen and ploughmen may have room to pass through the intermediate spaces. The same field, indeed, must be fresh ploughed every year, and, at the approach of spring, the plants, which have been stripped of their leaves in the winter, are cut like vines, and quickly covered with new foliage. The poorer sort amongst the Spaniards of Paraguay wear cotton shirts; the richer, linen ones. They prefer paying an inordinate price for linen webs brought from Europe to the trouble of cultivating flax.

RICE.

During the first years that I spent in Paraguay, rice was so scarce that, as it was brought from other countries, it hardly ever appeared at our table. It was never sown, and none would go of their own accord to gather or carry away rice, which grows at a great distance on the northern shores of the Paraguay; justly fearing the Payaguas, who infested those places. Instructed, at length, by the Portugueze Brazilians, we began to sow rice, and the crop was more than could be consumed. But as it is very difficult to take the grains of rice out of the ear, the Indians preferred eating maize, which is pounded in mortars with little trouble. Let no one entertain a notion that the sowing and cultivation of rice require any particular artifices; for it is sown and reaped exactly in the same manner as European wheat, with this difference only, that the seeds must be committed to the earth at the commencement of spring, and in a moist situation. Many have affirmed positively that rice will only grow in marshy places; but we found that which was sown in woods, or rather in ground that had formerly been wooded, to yield a more abundant harvest than what was sown in a marshy situation. For a place that has been previously occupied by trees, retains, for a long time, its native humidity, and the ashes of the trees that have been cut down and burnt on the spot, incredibly fertilize the soil. In places of this kind the Guaranies used to sow tobacco, maize, and most other things except cotton, with great success. But, good heavens! how have I lost myself in this labyrinth of trees, shrubs, and plants! I shall hardly be able to find my way out of the wood; yet it is best to tarry there awhile till, after having described the medicinal trees, I have enumerated all the rest which are useful in building, or on other accounts worthy of note.

THE TAY?, OR URUNDE?
QUEBRACHO.

The tay?, or tajibo, and the urunde? quebracho, either of a red, or pale colour, excel in hardness and size; both trees are called by the Spaniards quebracho, or quebrahacho, because, unless dexterously cut by a skilful woodman, or carpenter, they break the axe at the first blow, being as hard as iron; for hacha means an axe, and quebrar to break. The quebracho colorado, when covered with its bark, is red. As soon as it is cut down and worked upon, the rosin in which it abounds is melted by the hot air, and flowing to the exterior parts of the wood, gives it a red hue, and causes it to shine like porphyry. The Guaranies burn pieces of the tree tay?, receive the smoke or soot arising from them into a clean dish, and by pouring hot water upon it, convert it into ink, which, mixed with gum and sugar, is by no means to be despised.

THE LAPACHO.

The lapacho is remarkable for the hardness and heaviness of its wood, and is particularly useful in making the mills for squeezing the sugar cane, olives, and other things, and also for wheels of waggons.

THE VIRARÒ.

The virarÒ affords white, not very hard, but extremely durable materials.

THE ESPINILLO.

The espinillo has very strong wood, but its indocility renders it fitter for the fire than for carpenter's work.

THE NETERGE.

Of the pith of the neterge very strong spears or pikes are made. This tree is remarkable for the width and height of its trunk. Its leaves, which are like oblong thorns, point towards the ground. For fruit, it bears pods or bags, which are about a span long, and have a balsamic odour. The pith of this tree equals iron in hardness, and is of a violet colour, which however changes to black, after the spears made of this wood have been rubbed some time by the hand.

THE ?BARÔ.

The large tree ?barÔ bears black, shining berries, about the size of filberts, which are pierced in the middle, and made into rosaries.

THE ÇEVIL.

The Çevil produces bark for dressing hides, together with certain pods, which the savage Indians used formerly to burn, inhaling the smoke into their mouth, nose, and whole body, which rendered them drunk, mad, and for some time furious.

THE SEIBO.

The seibo, a middle-sized tree, adorned with violet-coloured leaves, consists of crooked boughs, and a spungy wood, as soft as that of the cork tree, so that, when fresh, it may be cut with a knife like an apple; but after it is dry, axes are not sufficient to hew it. A bough of this tree fixed in the ground takes root, and grows immediately. Whenever the tiger feels his claws burn, he is said to rub them against the bark of this tree to relieve the pain.

PALO DE LECHE.

This tree is called palo de leche, the milky tree, by the Spaniards, because its wood is white as milk, and so soft that it may be cut with a common knife, and is used for small carpenters work.

THE ?ÇAP?.

The ?Çap?, a large tall tree, is covered with leaves like those of the citron, but smaller, and of a paler green. It is a remarkable circumstance, that when the air is mild, and always in the night, its leaves drop a quantity of water, which moistens the space round about the tree and renders it muddy. The wood of the tree is very soft and flexible, but not moist, on which account it is well calculated for making stirrups. John Verkens of Leipzig, in his account of a journey taken by the Dutch to the East Indies, relates, that in the island of Ferro, one of the Canaries, they found a very large tree which dropped water day and night, every part of the year, and that the inhabitants hung up large pitchers to receive it for their own use, and that of their cattle; fresh water, he says, being incredibly scarce there. If this be true, I suspect that it must be the same tree as that which the Guaranies call ?Çap? in Paraguay. They say that this water possesses a medicinal virtue, but of what kind I do not know.

THE TREE OF ANTS.

This is called arbol de hormigas, the tree of ants. It consists of a weak spungy wood. The whole tree is full of holes like a sieve, and being covered with ants, should be avoided by all passers by; for if you do but touch the tree, a host of ants rush out of their lurking-holes, and will cover both you and the tree itself.

So wide are the boughs and trunk of this tree, that the sun never sees its foot. It affords plenty of shade to fifty persons seated beneath it, and completely defends them against the rain. The linden trees of Europe are mere dwarfs compared with an aged umbÙ.

THE WILLOW.

The willow, though it covers the islands of the Parana, and the banks of certain rivers, is not to be seen elsewhere throughout a vast extent of country. The wood and leaves of willows, used both medicinally and for other purposes, were often vainly sought by us.

THE AMBA?.

The amba?, a kind of wild fig, grows pretty high in the course of a few months. The body of the tree is slender, and perforated like an elder; the bark such as is peculiar to figs; and the wood white like that of a birch, but so soft that it may be cut with a knife. It has few boughs, but is adorned with very large leaves, for the lively verdure of which it is greatly commended, as well as for the salubrity of its bark, juice, and leaf, which, applied in various ways, stop running of the reins, too copious discharges, and looseness of the bowels.

THE WALNUT.

Walnuts, no ways differing from those of our own country, are very common in the woods of Tucuman, but scarce seen in other parts of Paraguay. Their wood is employed in making pistol-cases, handles, and for other kinds of cabinet-maker's work. The nuts are of different sorts, for some are very large, with a soft rind, others quite dwarfish, and with rinds as hard as a stone.

THE URUCU?.

The urucu?, which is half shrub half tree, resembles a hazle in the whiteness of its wood, and the blackness of its bark. Its leaves are rather large, and heart-shaped. The flowers, which are composed of five white petals, tinged with red, are about the size of a common rose, but have no scent whatever. For fruit it bears pods, which are green at first, and afterwards red, each containing about forty grains the size of peas, but plain on both sides, and with a white pulp, like the seeds of apples. The surface of them is of a deep bright red, and immediately dyes the hands of all who touch it with that colour. The pods, when ripe, burst open of themselves. These grains, either dry or fresh, supply the place of vermillion: when pounded, and sprinkled with water, they are used by the savages, sometimes for painting their bodies, sometimes for dying or staining cloth, vessels, or other things. This scarlet colour, when a thing is once tinctured with it, adheres pertinaciously, if the grains of the urucu?, steeped in water, be mixed with alum or urine. The same grains are thrown into boiling water, and of the colour that settles at the bottom cakes are made, which the women in Europe paint their faces with, and painters and dyers use for other purposes. They are used also both as food and medicine, variously prepared and mixed. Of the bark some weave cables, cords, and ropes, stronger than hempen ones.

THE AÑIL, OR INDIGO.

That mass of blue colour which the Spaniards call aÑil, or aÑir, and other Europeans, indigo, is made of a plant, with a long slender root, branching out into a number of shoots; on which account its long stalks partly creep on the ground, and partly stand upright. They are red on one side, and are loaden with small boughs, and round leaves, about the size of one's little finger nail, of a dark green, on one side, and a silvery white on the other. The little blossoms of this plant are of a palish red, with flowers like a husk of corn, or as others explain it, like an open helmet: and are succeeded by pods, hanging from the stalk, full of an olive-coloured seed, very like rape seed. The leaves of the plant, when perfectly mature, are gathered in bundles, pounded in stone mortars in the first place, and next steeped, and turned about in a pan of tepid, or as others say, cold water. They use them poured out on a wooden table, surrounded with a high wooden brim, and hollowed here and there into ditches. After the water has escaped, the thicker part of the colour settles into those ditches, coagulates, and hardens. The solid particles are then taken out, and dried for many days; for the dryer they are, the nearer they approach to that colour which we call Venetian blue. Those who dyed webs, or garments with that colour in Paraguay, mixed children's urine, instead of alum, with it, to prevent the colour from flying. The plant aÑil is sown in other places, and grows spontaneously in the plains of Paraguay, but is generally neglected, the industry of the inhabitants seldom answering to the liberality of nature. I never had the least doubt but this plant might be cultivated in those countries of Europe where the climate is milder. The seed must be sown in a soft, and well-tilled soil. The young plants must be removed, like lettuce, and cabbage, and placed at proper distances: great care must likewise be taken to prevent their being choked with weeds.

COCHINILLA.

The Paraguayrian cochineal is produced by winged insects, which sit continually on certain little thistles, and suck their juice. There are many kinds of these thistles, which differ from one another in their form, and fruit. The plant on which the cochineal is found, is called tuna by the Spaniards, and opuntia by botanists. From a very short root rises a thick stalk, sometimes four-cornered, green, crooked, with a white fragile pulp, and covered with thorns: on this, instead of boughs and leaves, grow other stalks, the same as the former, very long, and extremely full of juice. Yellow flowers are succeeded by fruit of a red colour, larger than a common fig, with a sweet, and at the same time, rather acid flavour, which renders them very delightful to the palate. Their pulp is full of small, black seeds, like grape stones, and when peeled has a delicious taste. From these shrubs therefore, the women collect cochineal, which consists of very small, white, fluid particles, closely resembling moss. Most of the particles are made into small, round cakes, and, after exposure to the air, become red and hard. Nothing further is requisite to fit them for painting, and dying. The Jesuit priest of the Guarany town Nuestra Senhora de Sta. FÈ, took care to have the tuna thistle planted in a large garden, that they might not be obliged to seek the cochineal necessary for his town in distant plains. When the thistles were grown up, those winged insects, resembling bugs, were carried by the Indians from the plain, and scattered up and down, with more than the desired success; for so abundant, and so excellent was the cochineal collected from them, that it was anxiously bought, at any price, by the neighbouring priests, for the use of their towns; because it was of a deeper, and brighter red, than that of the plains, and the woods, and was, moreover, scented with citron juice. In succeeding years, the same Father prevented all access to the town by means of these thistles, that the equestrian savages, who had committed much carnage amongst them, might not be so easily able to approach it. This kind of living hedge, which the Spaniards use both in their gardens and estates, became not only a means of security, but at the same time, an ever fertile nursery of cochineal, which, as well as a most beautiful paint, affords the Paraguayrians a medicine for strengthening the heart, creating perspiration, and counteracting poison; so that it may be safely, and usefully mixed with vinegar, and other seasoning liquors.

GOLDEN-ROD.

Golden-rod, which has a very straight stalk crowded from top to bottom with leaves, is sometimes four, sometimes five feet high, and adorned with a bright, yellow flower, abounds in the plains of Paraguay. Both its trunk, and leaves, boiled in water, and mixed with alum, afford painters, and dyers a most splendid yellow colour, and mixed with blue a very bright green. The same golden-rod is also of great, and various use amongst physicians. I remember a gentlewoman, who had been confined to her bed for years by some disease which baffled the skill of many physicians, being quickly, and happily cured, by a German, who prescribed the use of this medicine. There are many species of golden-rod, but I was acquainted with only one in Paraguay.

ROOTS OF A RED COLOUR.

The Guaranies in marshy places dig up roots called yzipÒ with a dusky surface, which they use to dye woollen, and cotton cloths of a dark red. Whether this root be the rubia of dyers I cannot venture to affirm, for though that plant is cultivated in Austria, I never happened to see it.

THE BARK CAATIGUÀ.

The bark of the tree caatiguÀ, when dipped in water, imparts a pale red colour, and is chiefly used for dying leather.

MATERIALS FOR A BLACK COLOUR.

To dye cloth black, they make use either of a kind of alfaroba, which I have described elsewhere to be like the Egyptian tree acacia, of a well-known Paraguayrian herb, or of a rich, black clay. Though cotton will take a black dye, it will not hold it long; consequently the cotton dresses which we wore in Paraguay, became almost of no colour, and the blackness, by degrees, faded away. The Spanish ladies of St. Iago, and the Chiquito Indians have the art of dying cotton with a very lasting black, a secret unknown to every one else.

A NAMELESS FRUIT AFFORDING
A GREEN COLOUR.

Walking in a wood on the banks of the Narahage I discovered a shrub, before unknown to me, covered with leaves of such a very bright green that I felt an inclination to taste them. I found them sweeter than sugar, and thought to use them for sweetening the herb of Paraguay. Applauding myself vastly, for what I thought so useful a discovery, I gave a leaf to the Spaniard, my companion, to taste; but he prudently declared, that he should take care not to eat, or even touch that strange plant. The Indian old women were consulted on this affair: they told us that these leaves were used for dying things green, but were very poisonous.

WOODS USED FOR DYING.

Woods, moreover, used for dying various colours, which are brought into Europe from Brazil, Guayana, and other countries of America, are found in that part of Paraguay, which borders on Brazil. The same may be observed with regard to roots, oils, juices, gums, rosins, kernels, &c.

CARDONES, or CEREI.

To the thistles called tunas, or Indian figs, you may add the cardones, or cerei, the trunk of which is large, and tall, with a spungy, and brittle pulp. In the place of branches and leaves there grow on them other stalks, both thick, and long, which are thorny on every side, full of juice, and straight upright. They bear white flowers, and oval-shaped fruit larger than a goose's egg, which produce a red colour, and are eaten by the Indians with impunity. In the deserts of Paraguay, I have often traversed immense woods of cardones. The honey which bees deposit in them is very famous in Europe. Every part of the cardo is converted into medicinal uses, both by the Europeans, and Americans. There are many species of cardones, of strange, and monstrous forms. Some creep on the ground, others stand upright. The most remarkable is the large, thorny, Peruvian cereus, which is twenty feet high, and one foot thick. Its trunk has various corners, and channels, as it were, together with knobs, and thorns. The bark is green, and the pulp fleshy, and under it lies a ligneous substance, the pith of which is white, and juicy. It bears but few flowers. If you wish to know more of this cereus, it is to be seen in the gardens of princes.

VARIOUS SPECIES OF THE CARAQUATA.

Many species of this plant are commonly to be met with in Paraguay. I will briefly mention those with which I am best acquainted. The caraquatÀ guazÙ, or the great caraquatÀ, is supported by a short thick root. It consists of about twenty very thick leaves, dentated on both sides, remarkably sharp, and about two feet in length, in the midst of which rises a stalk, like a trunk, five, and often more feet high. The top of it is crowned with yellow flowers. The Indian women spin threads of the fibres of the leaves, as others do of flax, or hemp, and weave them into cords, cloths, and nets. But no time, or art can make these threads perfectly white, nor will they hold any colour with which they may be dyed. Creditable authors write that in the province of Guayana such beautiful stockings are woven of this same thread, that they are sometimes preferred to silk ones in France for strength, and softness. Another kind of caraquatÀ, very like the former, is seen in the woods, but it cannot be spun into threads. In the woods of MbaÈverÀ, the Indian women who inhabit there make thread, and garments, not of the caraquatÀ, but of the bark of the tree pinÔ, after it has been properly cleaned: for the webs woven of the thread of this bark, after being exposed for sometime to the sun, and frequently sprinkled with water, become beautifully white and will retain any colour with which they are dyed, extremely well. It is much to be lamented that this tree pinÔ is found in the larger woods only, and is not to be seen in many parts of Paraguay. Another caraquatÀ of a different shape produces a kind of artichoke, or anana. It bears fruit of a scarlet colour, and has plenty of seed contained in a straight slender stalk. It is surrounded with very large leaves, denticulated like a saw, and pointing towards the ground, in the centre of which travellers find a tolerable supply of very clear water, and with it often quench their thirst in dry deserts, where sometimes not a drop of water is to be found. Another caraquatÀ with leaves very like a sword, and armed on both sides with a threatening row of thorns, bears fruit of a pale yellow within and without, full of black seeds, and pregnant with an acidulated, and pleasant juice. But to extricate this fruit from the many thorns, with which the leaves that guard it are armed, without being wounded, is the labour and the difficulty. Of this fruit mixed with sugar a very wholesome drink, and an excellent medicine for various diseases are made. These, and other kinds of caraquatÀ are of great use to the Americans. Planted around gardens, and the buildings of estates, they, by their thorns, prevent all secret, and improper access, more effectually than any other kind of hedge, and will survive every inclemency of the weather. Their leaves supply the place of flax in making thread, as well as of tiles in covering temporary huts, and their thorns serve for needles. Their leaves, on being pricked, yield a thick juice which washerwomen use for soap, and when boiled on the fire are fit to be eaten. The Indians look upon the various fruits of the caraquatÀ as food. From their leaves, when scraped with a knife, flows a sweet liquor, which is thickened on the fire, and condensed into sugar. This liquor of the caraquatÀ, mixed in water with the seeds of oranges, or lemons, undergoes a vinous fermentation; exposed to the sun it turns to vinegar. By what method, and in what cases, wounds and disorders are healed by the juice of the caraquatÀ, would be long to tell. A polypodium, preferable in the opinion of physicians to any European one, grows on the caraquatÀ.

VARIOUS KINDS OF REEDS.

Both in marshy plains, and in the moister woods, you see a great abundance and variety of reeds; some solid, others hollow. Some are as thick as a man's thigh, others scarce equal to his thumb: many which are slenderer than a goose's quill, but full ten yards long, entwine themselves about the neighbouring trees. You commonly meet with reeds of such immense size, that they supply the place of wood in building houses, waggons, and ships, and if cut at proper times would exceed it in hardness and durability. Some made very large flagons, for the purpose of holding wine on a journey, of these reeds, and they answered better than glass, because less fragile. As various kinds of reeds grow in various parts of the province, the Indians ingeniously conjecture the name and country of their savage foes who have been travelling the same way, from the reed of an arrow which they may have chanced to see on the road. We have often crossed woods of wide extent bristling with continual reeds, and have been obliged to pass the night there even, always sleepless, always anxious; for as reeds generally delight in a marshy soil, they are seminaries and abodes of tykes, snakes, gnats and other insects, which are always noisy and stinging, and never spare either the blood or ears of strangers; especially on an impending calm. If a violent wind comes on, the fire at which you sit, being thereby scattered up and down, will set fire to the reeds, which are covered with leaves, and you will be burnt; for no means of extinguishing the flames are at hand, and there are no opportunities of escape. Those reeds which the Germans call Spanish canes, and the Spaniards Indian ones, and which are used for walking-sticks, never grow in Paraguay, though neither rare nor precious in the provinces of North America.

THE SUGAR-CANE.

The sugar-cane flourishes exceedingly in the hotter territories towards the north, if properly cultivated. In the month of August, at the end of winter that is, slips of canes, about one or two feet long, are placed sloping in furrows, at equal distances, and properly ploughed. These gradually rot under ground, and from them a new germ arises, which grows to the height of eight feet, and is cut down in the space of about two months, being perfectly ripe. The longer they are left in the field, the sweeter and thicker becomes their juice, which is afterwards expressed by various methods and machines in America. In Paraguay, the canes, after being stripped of their leaves, are cut into pieces a foot and a half in length. These are thrust by the hand into two large cylinders of very hard wood, which are turned round by two oxen with the help of a great wooden wheel. The juice squeezed out by the tight compression of the cylinders, falls into a boat or cup placed beneath. It is then boiled in a brass pan, more or less, according to the various uses for which the sweet liquor is intended; for if it be used in the same manner as honey, which serves either for food or drink, it is less thickened on the fire, and kept in skins, at the bottom of which, after the liquid part is consumed, you find white crystallized stones, made of the coagulated sugar, which is commonly called the pure and natural sugar-candy; for that yellow candied sugar so full of threads, which is sold in shops, appears to be artificial. But if the liquor expressed from the canes be intended for making sugar, it must be boiled for a long time, and brought to a thick mass. The oftener this is strained through an earthen pan perforated at the bottom, and the longer it is exposed to the sun, the more thoroughly it is purged of the dregs, which flow off into a vessel placed beneath the pan, and the whiter and better sugar it becomes. Of these dregs the Spaniards make either coarser sugar, or aqua vitÆ, by liquefying it at the fire drop by drop. For the same purpose others use the canes that have been pressed by the cylinders, but have not had all their juice entirely squeezed out. Observe, moreover, that the pans in which that sweet liquor is daily exposed to the sun are carefully covered with fresh moist mud. All the sugar prepared in Paraguay, and the neighbouring Brazil, has the appearance of wheat flour. That alone is used by the Portugueze; it is transported from Lisbon, in ships, to different places, and made as hard as a stone by aid of chalk, or bull's blood. As the industry of the inhabitants in Paraguay by no means answers to the fertility of the soil, the sugar made there is rarely sufficient for that province, so that no one thinks of exporting any from thence. On the contrary, from the exquisite cultivation of the sugar cane, Brazil derives immense wealth from Europe; it is the chief strength of the Portugueze trade, and a perpetual source of riches. The sugar cane differs from the common reed no otherwise than in having more joints, and a smaller space between each. It is adorned with beautifully green and very large leaves, especially at the top. It is about four inches thick. Though the plant is seven or eight feet high, great part of it towards the top is thrown away, being devoid of juice, and very full of leaves. Sugar canes like a rich and moist soil, nor will they grow much on hills, though well watered. More earth must be heaped on the sugar cane after it has been lately planted in the summer, less in the winter, that it may not bud too much; for the more leaves it bears the less juice it will yield. Weeds, which suck up the moisture of the earth, must be carefully extirpated. Moderate frosts are useful to the full grown canes, because they thicken the sweet liquor; immoderate ones do harm, because they exhaust it all. Ants, which are destructive to the young canes, must be carefully kept away. Many other arts, proper to be used in the rearing and expression of canes, and the converting of them into sugar, I choose to omit for the sake of brevity. I have briefly described the principal ones, that Europeans may be made thoroughly acquainted with the origin of sugar, which they know so well how to consume, and cease to wonder that these reedy sweets, so laboriously prepared in America, should often be sold at such an extravagant price in Europe.

BEES' HONEY.

Throughout the whole of Paraguay you see none of those beehives the keeping of which is so troublesome in Europe, because the various species of bees deposit their excellent and copious honey either in hollow trees, in the caverns of the earth, or in the open plain; especially in those territories which enjoy a mild climate, and are near to flowery plains. Honey differs both in name and taste according to the different bees that produce it, and the different times and places in which it is produced. That which is concealed under ground the Abipones call nahÉrek. In some places it is rather acid, in others very sweet. A quantity sufficient to fill many jugs is often dug out of one cave. That which is taken at the beginning of spring from the tops of shrubs or high grass is called by the Spaniards lechiguana. The materials of which the cells of this honey consist are very like blotting-paper, and are often of such extent and circumference that you can hardly embrace them with both arms. The honeycombs which certain wasps build in Europe are constructed in much the same way. The excellence of the lechiguana honey you may ascribe to its being made of the first spring flowers, and if it remains untouched for some months, and escapes the eyes and hands of passers by, it hardens of itself, like sugar, which it excels in sweetness. Moreover it has no admixture of wax. Though various kinds of honey are found under the earth, and in the plain, yet the principal storehouses of the bees are the hollow trunks of lofty trees. The Spaniards of St. Iago prefer to every other kind that found on the cardones. With the Guaranies, and all just estimators, the first place is given to the e?robÁÑa, the sweetest and most transparent of all honey, which, when poured into a glass, could not be distinguished from water. The same honey, if found on the fragrant wood of the tree ybir^apayÈ is then decidedly the best, and excels all other honey as the sun does the lesser stars. In Paraguay, in the winter months the Abipones think honey extremely unwholesome, and carefully abstain from eating it. The Spaniards of St. Iago go out in crowds to seek honey and wax in distant woods; and after whitening it with immense labour in the sun, sell it to the people of Peru and Chili, with hardly moderate profits. To discover and rifle the beehives concealed in the woods is a matter of little difficulty to the Abipones, who, when the sky is clear, and the sun bright, ride out on horseback into the country. Being possessed of wonderfully quick eyesight, they perceive the bees flying about, and leaving their horse at the bank of a river, pursue them on foot till they see what tree they enter: this they climb with all the agility of apes, open a hole by way of a door, and as a mark of the hive, take out the honey and wax into a leathern bag, and carry it home, where their friends, wives, and children soon consume these adventitious sweets, either by eating them like ambrosia, or drinking them like nectar. But if a general drinking-party be appointed on any occasion, the honey they bring is mixed with cold water, and stirred for a little while with a stick; when, without addition of any other ferment, it effervesces, froths, and becomes wine in the space of some hours, and taken even in small quantities intoxicates the Indians like very pure wine: for we have found two or three cups sufficient to upset their naturally imbecile minds. Wax is scarce ever used amongst the Indians: for the fire, which is always kept alive on the floor of the hut, serves to dress the food by day, and supplies the place of a candle by night.

SALT.

From honey let us proceed to salt, which is in great request both amongst the savages and almost all beasts, though they are scarce ever able to procure it: for notwithstanding that some parts of Paraguay abound in salt either natural, or artificial, yet none of either kind can be obtained throughout immense tracts of land, unless it be brought at a great expense from other places. All the Guarany towns are destitute of chalk, and salt, both of which are forced to be conveyed in ships, or waggons, from the remote colonies of the Spaniards, are often purchased at an exorbitant price, often not to be procured. In the Cordoban territories, and elsewhere, the lakes which have been exhausted by a long drought do indeed afford coagulated salt; but during time of drought it is very difficult to reach those lakes, as the plains, through which you must pass, deny water both to the carriers, and to the oxen, by whom the salt is conveyed in waggons to the cities. In rainy seasons, when those lakes are full, no salt is coagulated, which being frequently the case, salt is in consequence often scarce and dear. In many places under the jurisdiction of the cities Asumpcion, and St. Iago, nitre collected in the plains, or salt water boiled in small pans, is converted into salt. At the town of Concepcion the salt boiled in the little town of Sta. Lucia was sometimes too bitter to be eaten: that salt made in the Indian town Lambare, and in Cochinoco where it borders on Peru, is much esteemed, because it is hard as a stone, very white, and fit for medicinal purposes. The people of Buenos-Ayres sometimes convey salt in ships by the South Sea, sometimes in waggons by land from the lakes, where there is an immense accumulation of native salt, and of snow. These lakes, as they are situated towards the straits of Magellan, many days' journey from the city, can never be reached without much expense, and seldom without some danger. Great troops of Spaniards were often cruelly murdered on the way by the southern savages, who scarce left one alive to announce the massacre to the city. On considering these difficulties you will not much wonder that salt is generally scarce in Paraguay, and often not to be procured. The Guaranies eat their meat and all their other provisions without a grain of salt; but a single spoonful was given on Sundays by the free bounty of the priest, to every father of a family, to last the whole week: yet even this little portion was expensive to the towns, of which some contained a thousand inhabitants, others seven or eight hundred. For as an arroba (a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds) of salt often cost four crowns, or eight Austrian florens, a pound was worth about twenty of our cruitzers. The savages who live in hidden wilds generally eat their food without salt, as there are no salt-pits there; and this is, in my opinion, the reason that so many of them are afflicted with cutaneous disorders. Others burn a shrub which the Spaniards call la vidriera, the ashes of which they used instead of salt, to season their meat with and to prepare medicines.

CORO.

This plant closely resembles tobacco in its leaf, its pungency, and property of exciting saliva.

When should I ever have done writing, were I to mention the names of all the other shrubs and plants? In certain Guarany towns you find immense woods of rosemary, rue, artemisia or mugwort, golden-rod, mint, and wormwood. I was acquainted with three different kinds of sage, varying in appearance, but endued with the same virtues. That which the Spaniards call royal sage is scarce, because seldom cultivated. Borage, plantane, mallows, bastard marjoram, garden-nasturtium, bugloss, vervain, fumitory, purslain, liquorice, and three kinds of pepper, that is, common pepper, which the Guaranies call g?; cumbar?, which has a small grain, but is remarkably pungent; and aji, which we call Turkish pepper: all these, which grow in Europe, are seen here in some places; but not every where. Ginger grows abundantly when planted. Throughout many tracts of land I could discover none of the nettles of our country. Liberal nature has bestowed on the soil of Paraguay innumerable herbs useful to physicians, such as contrayerva, &c. It may be proper to give some little account of the grains which compose the chief part of the support of the Indians.

MAIZE.

That grain, which the Spaniards call mayz, is the principal provisions of the Americans. It bears grains of divers colours. The Guaranies sow various kinds of it. Those best known to me are the abati hatÂ, composed of very hard grains, the abati morotÎ, which consists of very soft and white ones, the abati mir^i, which ripens in one month, but has very small dwarfish grains, and bisingallo, the most famous of all, the grains of which are angular and pointed: when pounded in a wooden mortar, they yield a sweet and very wholesome flour, and drunk with water, either alone, or mixed with honey or sugar, quickly allay hunger and the most burning thirst. This flour is the delicious food of the soldiers of St. Iago, when they pursue the fugitive savages, and by its aid they often accomplish long and arduous excursions in a few days, without ever being obliged to light a fire to cook their victuals. This flour was likewise a great relief to myself in calamitous journeys under a burning sun. Of the grains of each kind of maize, either whole, or pounded in a mortar, the Indian women make various sorts of food, and even a thin bread, dressed on the hot coals, which, however, hunger alone would render palatable to a European. The Spanish ladies, of maize flour, carefully strained through a sieve, make a white bread, which, while new, has an agreeable flavour, and is to my taste preferable to wheaten bread. The grains of maize, when pounded in a mortar, and sprinkled with water, ferment in a few hours, and frequently afford the lower orders of Spaniards, and still oftener certain Indians, a fermented liquor called chicha or aloja. The Abipones, who abound in honey and the alfaroba, though very fond of maize, never use it in that manner. Many and great are the advantages of maize, for it does not require a very rich soil. One grain often yields the cultivator more than a thousand-fold. The ears, when young and milky, are much relished both by Europeans and Americans, either roasted or boiled with meat. The Indians find this grain, however prepared, highly useful in strengthening the body, increasing the blood, and lengthening life. Neither could we discover any thing better for fattening hens and other animals.

BATATAS.[2]

Amongst articles of food used by the Indians, a high place is given to certain roots which the Spaniards call batatas, and the Germans earth-apples (erdÄpfel). It would be superfluous to describe with prolixity a thing so commonly seen. Those of Paraguay are decidedly superior to the German ones in size and flavour. These roots, or rather bulbs, are sometimes white, sometimes red, and sometimes yellow, in Paraguay. In my opinion the red ones are by far the worst, and the yellow the best of all.

2. Potatoes.

THE MANDUBI.

The mandubi, a fruit which Europe may envy America the possession of, resembles an almond in oiliness, sweetness, and, with the exception of the bark, in appearance. It grows under ground from a very beautiful plant about two feet high, which has a square hairy stalk of a reddish green colour. Its slender boughs are covered with four small leaves of a bright green on one side, and a whitish hue on the other, and are clothed with tender down. At the beginning of the little boughs grow small yellow flowers with red edges, hanging by a short stem, and surrounded by three leaflets. The roots of this plant are short, slender, and tortuous, and on them hang yellow oblong pods with a soft rind. Each of these pods contains either one or two kernels, (for there are various species of the mandubi,) beautifully covered with a red skin, and inclosing a very white and very rich pulp. These kernels, slightly fried or roasted, are much liked even by Europeans. The oil expressed from them is used instead of oil of olives, to which indeed it is superior, on lettuce; and many eat it with food in the place of butter or beef fat. I have often wished that this excellent fruit grew in Europe, where it certainly would be useful in many ways.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Clyx.com


Top of Page
Top of Page